What is English | History of English | Rifaul Hasan

English
Pronunciation	/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/
Region	Worldwide
Native speakers	360–400 million (2006) L2 speakers: 400 million; as a foreign language: 600–700 million
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English
Writing system	Latin script (English alphabet) Anglo Saxon runes(Historically) English Braille, Unified English Braille
Signed forms	Manually coded English (multiple systems)
Official status
Official language in	67 countries 27 non-sovereign entities Various organisations
Language codes
ISO 639-1	en
ISO 639-2	eng
ISO 639-3	eng
Glottolog	stan1293
Linguasphere	52-ABA
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language   Countries where English is official but not a majority native language

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Britain that would later take their name, England, both names ultimately deriving from the Anglia peninsula in the Baltic Sea. It is closely related to the Frisian languages, but its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic language), as well as by Latin and French
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English language
Series on the English language
Topics
English language  English-speaking world English as a second language History of English
High level topics
English as a world language English as a lingua franca European language Modern English
Linguistics
Phonological history of English
Types
American English British English Canadian English Indian English Australian English New Zealand English
Teaching
Teaching English as a second language Category:English words and phrases Higher category: Language